Constitutional Stupidities, Constitutional Tragedies / / ed. by Sanford V. Levinson, William N. Eskridge.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• MitwirkendeR: Alexander, Larry,; Amar, Akhil Reed,; Balkin, J. M.,; Bobbin, Philip,; Bradley, Gerard V.,; Brown, Rebecca L.,; Calabresi, Steven G.,; Carter, Lief H.,; Eisgruber, Christopher L.,; Eskridge, William N.,; Failinger, Marie A.,; Farber, Daniel A.,; Fleming, James E.,; Graber, Mark,; Griffin, Stephen M.,; Jacobsohn, Gary,; Karlan, Pamela S.,; Kennedy, Randall,; LaRue, L H.,; Levinson, Sanford,; Lowi, Theodore J.,; Maltz, Earl M.,; McConnell, Michael W.,; Michael, Matthew D.,; Nagel, Robert F.,; Ortiz, Daniel R.,; Post, Robert,; Powe, L A.,; Roberts, Dorothy E.,; Rosen, Jeffrey,; Sager, Lawrence G.,; Schauer, Frederick,; Seidmon, Louis Michael,; Sherry, Suzanna,; Stokes Paulsen, Michael,; Strauss, David A.,; Tribe, Laurence H.,; Tushnet, Mark,; Yoo, John,
• HerausgeberIn: Eskridge, William N.,; Levinson, Sanford V.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [1998]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 1998
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

The Constitution is the cornerstone of American government, hailed as one of the greatest contributions of the Western Enlightenment. While many seem content simply to celebrate it, those most familiar with the document invariably find it wanting in at least some aspects. This unique volume brings together many of the country's most esteemed constitutional commentators and invites them to answer two questions: First, what is the stupidest provision of the Constitution? "Stupid" need not mean evil. Thus, a second, related question is whether the scholar-interpreter would be forced to reach truly evil results even if applying his or her own favored theory of constitutional interpretation. The contributors include Lawrence Alexander, Akhil Reed Amar, Jack Balkin, Philip Bobbitt, Gerard Bradley, Rebecca Brown, Steven Calabresi, Lief Carter, Christopher Eisgruber, Lawrence Sager, Marie Failinger, Daniel Farber, James Fleming, Mark Graber, Stephen Griffin, Gary Jacobsohn, Randall Kennedy, Lewis LaRue, Theodore Lowi, Earl Maltz, Michael McConnell, Matthew Michael, Robert Nagel, Daniel Ortiz, Pamela Karlen, Michael Paulsen, Robert Post, Lucas Powe, Dorothy Roberts, Jeffrey Rosen, Frederick Schauer, Michael Seidman, Suzanna Sherry, David Strauss, Laurence Tribe, Mark Tushnet, and John Yoo.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Constitutional Conversations -- PART I. Constitutional Stupidities -- CHAPTER 1. A Constitutional Accident Waiting to Happen -- CHAPTER 2. Parlor Games -- CHAPTER 3. An Agenda for Constitutional Reform -- CHAPTER 4. "Clause and Effect7' -- CHAPTER 5. The One Senator, One Vote Clauses -- CHAPTER 6. Our (Almost) Perfect Constitution -- CHAPTER 7. Unnecessary and Unintelligible -- CHAPTER 8. The Nominee Is . . . Article V -- CHAPTER 9. A Natural Aristocracy? -- CHAPTER 10. "Neither Force nor Will" -- CHAPTER 11. Presidential Elections and Constitutional Stupidities -- CHAPTER 12. The Presidential Age Requirement and Public Policy Agenda Setting -- CHAPTER 13. The Last Centrifugal Force -- CHAPTER 14. Someone Should Have Told Spiro Agnew -- CHAPTER 15. Old People and Good Behavior -- CHAPTER 16. Divided Suffrage -- CHAPTER 17. The Constitution of Fear -- CHAPTER 18. Criminal Procedure as the Servant of Politics -- CHAPTER 19. Our Unconstitutional Senate -- CHAPTER 20. How to Violate the Constitution without Really Trying -- CHAPTER 21. The Whole Thing -- CHAPTER 22. How Stupid Can a Coasean Constitution Be? -- PART II. Constitutional Tragedies -- CHAPTER 23. Constitutional Tragedies and Giving Refuge to the Devil -- CHAPTER 24. The Meaning of Constitutional Tragedy -- CHAPTER 25. The Tragic Case of Capital Punishment -- CHAPTER 26. Constitutional Tragedies: The Dark Side of Judgment -- CHAPTER 27. Good Constitutions and Bad Choices -- CHAPTER 28. Jocasta Undone -- CHAPTER 29. Constitutional Tragedy in Dying: Or Whose Tragedy Is It, Anyway? -- CHAPTER 30. Dramatic Jurisprudence -- CHAPTER 31. Constitutional Farce -- CHAPTER 32. Constitutional Merry-Go-Round -- CHAPTER 33. Glamis, Yes; Cawdor, Yes— but King of Scotland? -- CHAPTER 34. Brown v. Board of Education -- CHAPTER 35. Tragedy and Constitutional Interpretation -- CHAPTER 36. The Meaning of Blacks7 Fidelity to the Constitution -- CHAPTER 37. Tragedies under the Common Law Constitution -- CHAPTER 38. McCulloch v. Maryland -- CHAPTER 39. Antigone and Creon -- APPENDIX. The Constitution of the United States -- About the Contributors -- Index